Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day

The Man and I had agreed to not buy gifts or do anything special for Valentine's Day but he didn't listen and went and did for me anyway. I do not like the over commercialized idea of Valentine's Day. Flowers that a week or two prior would have cost less than half the cost or random boxed chocolates just do not do it for me. I want to have the love shared with me but I do not want The Man to go out and spend crazy money that could go elsewhere more important on flowers. He went way above and beyond (even though we had agreed not to) and did for me what I would consider the best gift ever because it really shows how well he knows me. He did buy me a card but it wasn't some overly romantic dramatic card, it was a funny, witty card that shows his personality. He did buy me some chocolates and candies but not a prepackaged overpriced heart shaped one. He bought me Haribo gummy bears and Ritter Sport minis. These are two of my favorite candies and I love that it showed that he thought this one out. He also bought me a single serving coke. This is awesome because I wont have to share with anybody and it is the coke made here that is made with real sugar and not HFCS. I love coke but I wont drink it with the HFCS in it. Coke is also a treat as it is not healthy for us even with regular sugar and I do not like paying the prices very often. I am so glad that The Man was thrifty and thoughtful in his gift. I unfortunately am a bad wife because I never suspected he was going to do something and since we had agreed to do nothing I have to come up with something creative today to try to show him how much I care.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Snow And Ice Cream


We woke up to snow today. I know this isn't very exciting for a lot of people but for us this is amazing. We lived in Tucson, Arizona for 10 years prior to moving here and there was almost no snow there. The first year there was some snow a couple of times and we enjoyed it, but last year I think we might have gotten a light dusting of flakes about 2 times. The first thing the kids wanted to do was go outside and play. I told them we had to have breakfast first. While I was mixing up ingredients for waffles and homemade syrup, I had The Man go out and collect some clean snow before the dog or kids could contaminate it all. We turned it into snow ice cream. This was the first time any of us had experienced this and yes, I was a bad mom and let the kids have some snow ice cream while their breakfast was cooking. I figure that we do not feed them like that regularly so it is OK to have a super special treat sometimes. Over the course of the day we ended up making three flavors. It is much cheaper than the $5 half gallons at the store and we already had all the ingredients on hand.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup of milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 cups sugar
  • CLEAN Snow

Preparation:

Go outside and get 4 - 5 cups of fresh, clean snow. Don't pack the snow! Bring it in the house and set it in the freezer until you need it. Mix together the milk, vanilla, and the sugar. Stir this mixture until the sugar is dissolved. Slowly add the snow to your mixture, stirring constantly, until it is as thick as ice cream! Eat up!


Our other versions were Mint Chocolate Chip and Chocolate. For the Mint Chocolate Chip we exchanged mint extract for the vanilla, added a couple drops of green food color, and added a few mini chocolate chips. For the Chocolate we omitted the vanilla and replaced it with 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder. This was fun and who knows when we will have snow again. Have you ever had ice cream made from snow? Do you have some different variations?